Green Party in the lead in survey of women candidates

The Green Party of England and Wales has welcomed a new report as evidence that they are doing more than other parties to secure equal representation for women.

Research by the Centre for Women and Democracy (CFWD) suggested that Labour, Tories and the Liberal Democrats are not doing enough to make local town halls as representative as they could be.

In the last local election, there were 318 wards across the country where none of the three establishment parties stood a female candidate.

But - as the Greens are keen to point out - the CFWD's report hailed the impact of the Green Party, 40.4 per cent of whose successful candidates in the last local election were women.

The report also revealed that Brighton and Hove City Council, the first local authority in the country to be run by Green Party councillors, was the best local council that they surveyed it terms of gender equality. Forty-four per cent of Brighton and Hove councillors are women.

"More women need to be involved in local democracy," declared Brighton councillor Alex Phillips, "How can councils come to the right decisions that affect the lives for half of the population if women are only 20-30 per cent of the councillors in town halls?

She accused the other parties of "a failure to tap into the wealth of skills and experience that women can bring to the table".

Phillips insisted that, "Across the country, the Green Party remains the only party providing a tangible force for positive change and equality".

Although the views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Ekklesia, the article may reflect Ekklesia's values. If you use Ekklesia's news briefings please consider making a donation to sponsor Ekklesia's work here.